Ben Grubb and Jacob Saulwick

Fears of overcrowding at train stations due to a shutdown of the Opal system have been realised, with one of the first known instances of a glitch affecting commuters during peak hour in the Sydney CBD.

On Thursday, a commuter who witnessed a reboot of barrier gates just before 9am at Town Hall station said the procedure resulted in a five-minute delay in getting out and chaos among passengers, who couldn't move.

"No room whatsoever to move": Town Hall station during the Opal glitch.

"Everyone had poured off the trains and come up the stairs and the gates had been closed," said a commuter, who gave his name as David.

"The staff at the station yelled out that the Opal readers weren't working and that they needed to reboot them. It wasn't all of them - but two of the Opal readers weren't working, which meant they had to restart about half of them.

"It was completely packed. There was just a sea of people and no room whatsoever to move. We were all packed in there like sardines. Only a few people were getting out."

Transport for NSW apologised for the incident, saying problems had started about 8am and had affected four Opal readers.

"Sydney Trains apologises to customers who were held up – on a train network as large as ours, technical issues happen from time to time," a spokesman said.

He said another "fault" unrelated to the Opal system also affected several gates at 6.30am.

"A technician fixed the problem and in the meantime customers were able to go through open gates or move to working gates to tap off," the spokesman said.

"The good news is, we've not yet had to shut down the system in peak hour during the day which is quite ... without gloating, there isn't a system of this expansiveness anywhere around the world that's been rolled out to date without a major glitch," Ms Berejiklian told ABC radio.

Prompted to respond to the fact a problem would eventually strike during peak, she said: "Well, I hope not. But what I'm saying is there are little system things we're dealing with every day because we're going ... from a system that is very outdated and clumsy to, I believe, a world-best system and we're learning from what other cities and states have done around the world."

She conceded there had been "some very small glitches" in the early stage of the rollout.

"But we're managing them all and they're mostly fixed within a very short period of time," Ms Berejiklian said.

Asked on Friday to comment on Thursday morning's incident, Ms Berejiklian said it wasn't a "major" peak hour issue.

"We’re still progressing the roll-out of Opal and we have always said there may be some minor glitches along the way - thankfully at this stage we have not had any major peak hour problems with Opal."

NSW is not alone in having to deal with failures of a smartcard system during its rollout.

87 comments so far

"But what I'm saying is we're going ... from a system that is very outdated and clumsy to, I believe, a world-best system and we're learning from what other cities and states have done around the world."

From these comments it would appear that the Transport Minister has not done much travelling on public transport in London, Europe or the US. Closer to home if she wants to a see a system that works she only needs to travel to Melbourne. One thing that Opal isn't is a world best system. It is a joke.

Commenter

Litoria

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 2:13PM

Rail: 1850's technology in 2014. It can only ever be so good (i.e. not very good).

The solution: leave Sydney. Because it's never, ever going to get better. Only worse.

Commenter

Jimmy

Location

Not_Oz

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 4:16PM

I lived in Melbourne during the Myki roll out. Trust me, it was not a fun experience. Readers didn't work, you couldn't find any place to top up (before they contacted with 7-11), online top ups could take days. My experience with Opal is better than Myki.

Commenter

TK

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 5:40PM

And that is why they call my city in Melbourne, worlds most liveable. Great food, great weather, great fashion, cheaper living and none of this. Love you melbourne.

Commenter

The Other Guy1

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 7:54PM

It's certainly no Oyster. Oyster can be purchased at any station, at any time, for ready cash, and topped up at any station, at any time, for ready cash.

Commenter

yogurt

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 10:21PM

The Opal system is a second slower than the paper ticketing which causes delay and frustration for commuters. What was wrong with the previous system? Hope someone got a good pay day out of this!

Commenter

Bang Bang

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 2:14PM

I'm betting that the folks who took the commission for this deal have already pocketed the money and left town ...

Commenter

Frank

Location

Sydney

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 10:51PM

How hard can it be for the gates to be reset whilst in the open position thereby preserving passenger safety? Opal is actually proving to be a lemon..

Commenter

Discombobulated

Location

Cherrybrook

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 2:16PM

The problem isn't about letting people out, but that people can't leave without registering their card otherwise they get charged the full distance price for that trip, which is almost invariably a higher price than it would be if they scanned through the gate. They can open gates and let people out without problem - except they can't scan their card.

Hence, people will wait until the reader is working to get charged the correct price.

Commenter

TheBigM

Date and time

August 01, 2014, 2:46PM

If the machine is being reset, and you cannot "tap off" you get charged the full maximum $8 something fare...

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